Super grats on new cats. What is a honeyvine?

It's a vine in the milkweed family, Angie - the scientific name is cynanchum laeve. Last year's monarch laid eggs on mine, and I raised about a dozen monarchs on it. It takes more of it than other milkweeds, but I have plenty of it, with lots of real new, tender leaves.
I've got 5 other types of MW seedlings, and they look promising. I'd like to have some for my garden and some to naturalize in open parts of my property.
MissSherry

Hi Sherry,Wow,that was nice of her to send you free eggs!You must be a good customer.

I'm surprised you don't have native milkweeds growing on your property,or have they not emerged yet?BTW...how do you contain your honeyvines?Mine are taking over the flower bed they're growing in,but I don't want to eliminate them 'cause I love that "coconut oil" fragrance of the flowers.

Well knock my socks off, it's Dan! Good to hear from you!
Actually, I do have some MW growing naturally, a. longifolia, but it has skinny, very tough leaves, and I've never found a cat on it. It's blooming right now, and I keep wondering if any butterfly is going to nectar on it - so far, I've never seen one doing that. My various MW seedlings look promising - since the hurricane, I've got a big, relatively open, sunny area where I plan to plant the MWs and some chinquapins.
You're the one that sent me the honeyvine seeds that got it all started! :) It comes up everywhere - I just pull it up when it's in areas of my garden that I don't want it, or sometimes I just shrug my shoulders and live with it. I was glad I had it last year, and I'm glad I've got it now.
Speaking of the hurricane, I haven't seen a single big silk moth since, not even one! :( I've still got plenty of sphinx moths, but no lunas, regals, imperials, etc. I've thought about ordering some chrysalids or eggs - maybe I'll do that! The trees are growing back hugely, so they've got plenty of food, especially the trees that they most commonly use.
' Hope you'll post more often!
MissSherry

I'd love to have some silk moths, and I've been told that my elderberry may host cecropias....I hope, I hope. Dan, I do have baby eight-spotted foresters in the incubation box right now. They are such pretty cats, and pretty moths, too. I'm kind of a moth nut, actually, and love the sphinxes, which is what I find. Last year I raised eumorpha achemons, manduca sexta, manduca quinquemaculata, and hemaris diffinus. Gotta love em! I plant things just for them, but my Virginia Creeper does a heck of a job attracting them.

MissSherry, my cynanchum laeve did not flower at all, so I have none coming up this year. I think I still have some seed that I may scatter about.

Susan

Hmmmm.....I'm under the impression that mine spreads by root runners, although it's made plenty of seeds, so seedlings might contribute. The flowers, like Dan said, really smell like coconut oil!
There's a RA cat making another leaf nest. I don't know if this is the same cat that's moved to another leaf, or a second cat - I hope it's a second cat! I don't want to open the first nest to see if there's a cat in there - I'm so excited to have a RA cat, I afraid of doing the least little thing wrong!
MissSherry

Finally go a red admiral pic.

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Oh, pretty, pretty, MissSherry!

Susan

I just ordered RA cats from them and they're sold out..but that's OK, since I discovered I had some cats....but they're out of GST's and ZLW's as well. :( Maybe I'll get some GST's here, I've got some folks looking out for me. But the ZLW's are a longer shot, at lest until late in the season, this far up the coast. Yes, that same kind person sent me the monarchvine seeds, I got one to sprout...it's just iddy biddy, but I'm counting on being able to put it in a good spot....MissSherry...does it like full sun? A trellis?

By monarch vine, do you mean cynanchum laeve, Paul? Cynanchum laeve grows in just about any situation - mine are in part sun/part shade. I've never grown any of the mateleas, but I imagine they're about the same, don't know for sure.
MissSherry

Sherry,I started a new job a year ago,an am working a lot of overtime.Still raising moths and butterflies,though not as many as I used to.Last year I found 3 Tuliptree moth cats and am hoping to raise this species on Umbrella or Big Leaf Magnolia.My pipevines are leafing out now,but the honeyvine and milkweeds have not emerged yet.

Can't believe you don't have any sikmoths,but maybe they will eventually return to the area.

Susan,cecropias will use elderberries and many other foodplants.I feed mine buckthorn (Rhamnus)which is not even on their "official" food list.Do the Forester moth cats live in rolled-up grape leaves? I never really got into Sphinx moths for some reason,though I did raise some Hummingbird moths once.

Dan, I have plenty of tulip tree moths! Something is always chewing on my big leaf magnolias, so maybe they're the culprit. :) The magnolias are blooming prolifically now all over my property, all types including the big leafs - they're my favorites.
MissSherry

MissSherry.....cynanchum laeve..yip...that's what I got...someone here (and forgive me for forgetting who) kindly sent me some seeds last year.....I've got one...and when it gets stronger I'm gonna be looking for a place outside to put it....

Hehehe......that would be me who sent you the seeds. :)
MissSherry

Dan, nope, the forester cats are not leafrollers, altho I get a few on the plant, I believe they are geometrids of some sort. MissSherry posted a photo of the cats on a fairly recent thread here. However, I need to go to Michael's and get some florist's foam for them to pupate in. They have a little variation in raising them as opposed to the sphinx moths, which pupate underground or in layers of paper towels.

I've got my tomatoe plants for the manducas, and I also have some datura coming up for them, too. Virginia Creeper is a very versatile host plant for many different sphinx moths and other moths, too. Seems like I'm always finding something unusual on it.

Last year, I had a 1st instar brown hemaris diffinus on my honeysuckle, together with 4 or 5 of the green forms. It was interesting to see it in that early of an instar, because usually they turn brown as they mature, and don't emerge brown. Bill Oehlke has posted it on his website. I'm trying to work on updating state and county records for moth presence in Oklahoma. I really do love them.

Moths are pretty much generalists when it comes to food selection. I wish I would find the Virginia Creeper sphinx and the pandora sphinx on my VC. Maybe someday. They are supposed to be found in central Oklahoma.

Susan

Sherry,you have big leaf mags growing wild on your property? They are native to a couple of counties in Southern Ohio,but I bought mine from Woodlanders many years ago.The flowers are amazing,aren't they? They smell like bubblegum to me,and are supposedly the largest flowers of any tree in North America.
Susan,I'd like to raise Pandoras because the cats are really cool-looking.The Virginia Creeper vines are just now leafing out here,and I'll be checking them often for cats.

Dan, the eumorphas are in the same family, and the cats are just as pretty as the Pandoras. Do you not get Eumorphas in Ohio? Yes, do check your VCs. There are many moths that use this vine in the grape family.

In August/September, the cats I find are always the dark form (kind of a cinnamon brown).

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Susan

I bought my big leaf magnolias, Dan, but they grow wild in areas close to here, so I'm very familiar with them. Mag grands are naturally everywhere on my property as are mag virginiana in the bottom of the hollow. I would like very much to have one of the local mag macrophyllas here. They have pure white flowers without the little bits of purple - I've checked the leaves, and they're eared, so they're definitely mag macs and not umbrella mags. I also ordered and planted a mag pyramidata, and it's finally getting some size on it - I've seen them growing in the wild here, too. They're not nearly as impressive as mag macs, much smaller, and I read somewhere that the flowers actually stink!
Here's a picture of a mag mac bud that I made recently with a penny next to it so you can see the size -
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MissSherry

I just realized that I called the owner of Shady Oak Butterfly Farm Edna. I got the first letter right, but her name is actually Edith.
It's #*@! to get old!
MissSherry

Heehee, MissSherry - we won't discuss how much better we're getting (not older)! Looks like somethin's been a munchin' on the leaf on the right upper corner???

I just planted mine in March, and it and the persea borbonia are taking their sweet time growing roots I would imagine, cause there's nothing on top! LOL! I hope those roots are growing and rolling around in that good chicken manure.

My Witch Hazel is finally beginning to show signs of life. Took it awhile, too. But the other plants, like the illicium henryi has blooms on it! It's a gorgeous plant. Don't know that anything uses it for a host, but I've been wanting one for my shady backyard for some time now. And the viburnum nudum is coming along nicely with new foliage and bigger leaves as is the Bottlebrush Buckeye. The two spicebushes I planted last year bit the dust in our drought last year. No foliage, nada. I checked the cambium layer and it is dead, dead baby, dead, dead, dead! So, I'm glad I re-ordered the two I have from MON. They are leafing out nicely, as is the pawpaw I got, too. Now I may get fruit eventually since I've planted two of them.

I started to order some more False Nettle from Edith, but the shipping was the same price as the plants, so I decided to wait it out. If I don't see any foliage in a couple of weeks, I'll try to get some locally from Marilyn at Wild Things. Too bad she doesn't do mail order cause her plants are gorgeous, too, and she's local for us. She's worked very hard to get seeds and grow plants that are native in Oklahoma.

I can't wait til I have blooms like yours! Those big-leaf mags grow all over town here. Lots of people like them, but the foliage can look pretty brown and battered by summer's end.

Susan

Yes, Susan, my mag mac leaves get chewed all the time - by fall, they're totally tattered!
I love those eumorpha cats - the color is so pretty!
I was going to try and take a picture of some of the cat nests my RAs have made in their cage, but I don't need to. While I was doing some work outside, I passed by some false nettle plants, and look what I found - the dark thing you can see through the hole is the cat -
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MissSherry

Not sure if eumorphas occur in Ohio.What is the common name?

I finally found RA eggs on my nettles.Woo hoo! The first butterfly eggs of the season for me! Can't wait til the monarchs get here.My milkweeds are just now popping up,but they grow incredibly fast...and big.Last year my common milkweeds were 7 feet tall!

I have an umbrella mag next to the mac.The flowers smell like a mixture of cucumbers and beer,which I suppose is intended to attract flies rather than bees.

I need to get some false nettle plants,as the true nettles really do sting! I wonder if the RA's show a preference when laying eggs? You would think the stinging nettles offer more protection for the baby cats.

Cecropia, their range is quite broad and I have no doubt you will find them in your area. Virginia Creeper is their favorite here, but I understand they will use grape and ampelopsis as well (all in the grape family).

I usually find the green form in spring and the brown form in fall.

Susan